Written Answers Friday 7 December 2007

Scottish Executive

Care of Elderly People

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list any local authorities that charge for the preparation of meals despite the Executive’s guidance on free personal care.

Shona Robison: Local authorities who currently make some charge for the preparation of meals are; Argyll and Bute, Dundee, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders and Stirling.

  We recognise the need for further clarity on charging for food preparation and we are working closely with COSLA to achieve this.

Class Sizes

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be allocated to South Lanarkshire Council specifically to support the reduction of class sizes to 18 in primary 1 to primary 3.

Maureen Watt: There are substantial additional resources available within the local government finance settlement to help all local authorities, including South Lanarkshire Council, to secure lower class sizes. This includes investment of an extra £115 million for the first year of the settlement which can be invested in schools and an increase of 15 per cent in capital for local government up to 2011.

  South Lanarkshire Council has already received additional funding of £549,900 as its share of the £9 million announced on 20 June 2007 to assist local authorities employ 300 additional teachers and £949,000 as its share of the additional £40 million for the Schools Fund capital grant against future capital implications of class size reduction.

Communities

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be a real terms increase in the Safer Communities budget in each of the three years of the draft budget.

Fergus Ewing: The Safer Communities budget includes funding for community safety, for tackling antisocial behaviour, and for tackling drug misuse.

  Up to and including the current year, the bulk of funding for community safety and for tackling antisocial behaviour has been transferred in year to fund local authorities’ activities in these fields. From 2008-09, this element of the budget has been incorporated into the overall local government finance settlement.

  The total package for funding for local government for 2008-11 will be £34.7 billion, representing an increase of 12.6% across the period.

  Local Government Funding for 2008-11

  

 
 Funding Granted
 


 2008-09
£11,137.3 million
 4.6% increase on 2007-08


 2009-10
£11,600.4 million
 4.2% increase on 2008-09


 2010-11
£11,992.6 million
 3.4% increase on 2009-10



  The Safer Communities budget in future years includes £2.8 million per year, to support nationally determined projects on community safety and antisocial behaviour.

  The element of the Safer Communities budget which relates to tackling drug misuse consists of £29.5 million/£32 million/£32.8 million for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. This represents a 14% increase against the comparable baseline. As at present, it is intended that the majority of resources within this budget will be released to health boards to fund drug treatment and rehabilitation services, with a small amount being retained to fund centrally determined projects.

Community Wardens

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many community wardens there have been in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area.

Fergus Ewing: This is a matter for local authorities. The information is not held centrally.

Drug Misuse

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what increase there will be in the budget for rolling out drugs courts in each of the three years of the draft budget.

Fergus Ewing: The draft budget contains provision for the continued operation of the existing drug courts in Fife and Glasgow. The position of these is due to be reviewed in spring 2009 against the progress made with the summary justice reforms. Meantime there are no plans for further drug courts and no budget provision has therefore been made, which would allow for extended coverage.

Education

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when every school will operate an alcohol education programme.

Maureen Watt: All schools are expected to provide health education, which includes substance misuse education, as part of the 5 to 14 Health Education guidelines. Local authorities are encouraged to address health education within a comprehensive programme of personal and social education. Drugs education includes controlled drugs, safe use of medicines, alcohol, tobacco and solvents.

  Scottish Government sponsored research on the effectiveness of drugs education in schools (published in March 2007) found that 97% of primary and 99.7% of secondary schools in Scotland provide drugs education with all categories of substance (alcohol, controlled drugs, medicine, solvents and tobacco) covered in all years. The vast majority of special schools (41 out of 43 that responded to the survey) also provided drugs education to either their primary or secondary pupils.

  The Health and Wellbeing area of the new 3 to 18 curriculum is likely to include outcomes and experiences that will provide teachers with opportunities to develop young people’s awareness of alcohol, drugs and other substances and the associated risks to health. It will remain the position that it is for individual authorities and schools to decide the best way of achieving those outcomes.

Education

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether acquisition of literacy skills is a priority for Scottish education.

Maureen Watt: Curriculum for Excellence identifies literacy skills as a key theme across the curriculum with all teachers having a role in promoting language and literacy development.

Education

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils attended state schools in each year since 1990.

Maureen Watt: The information is available on the government website at the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PupilTeacherHistoric .

Forced Marriages

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many forced marriages have been annulled by Scottish courts in each year since 1999.

Fergus Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally.

Health

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to remedy any poorer access to health services in areas of disadvantage.

Shona Robison: A ministerial task force on health inequalities has been set up to identify and prioritise practical actions to reduce the most significant and widening health inequalities in Scotland. A key priority of the task force is to look at the implications for the way in which we design our services and distribute resources across the country. The task force will report to the Cabinet by May 2008.

  In primary care, for example, we are committed to targeting resources to deprived areas through a range of measures including further development of the new GMS (GP) contract, the new pharmacy contract, dental access initiatives and a new school-based dental service in the most deprived areas.

  Through the Keep Well programme we are addressing health inequalities by strengthening and enhancing primary care services in the most deprived areas and increasing the rate of health improvement for those aged between 45 and 64. Keep well is operating in parts of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire and Dundee and will soon extend to Fife, Ayrshire and Arran, Aberdeen and further areas within Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Justice

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals charged with rape have been granted bail in each year since 1999, broken down by police authority area.

Kenny MacAskill: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-29853 on 30 November 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  More recent 2006-07 figures on bail orders made will be available when the Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts 2006-07 statistical bulletin is published, likely to be in March 2008.

Libraries

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to make RNIB talking books and similar products available free of charge through libraries on the same basis as normal books.

Linda Fabiani: The provision of library services is the responsibility of local authorities and the Scottish Government has no locus in the matter. However, the Scottish Government expects local authorities to make appropriate arrangements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003.

Local Government Finance

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much ring-fenced funding will be allocated to local authorities for the Fire Capital Grant in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.

Fergus Ewing: Following Mr Swinney’s recent statement on the 2007 Spending Review, £24.6 million of Fire Capital Grant has been allocated for each of the next three years.

Schools

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the spending plans already agreed for new schools.

Maureen Watt: Local authorities are responsible for the planning, procurement and construction of new schools and the spending plans involved. Because these do not require the specific agreement of the Scottish Government we do not hold centrally information on detailed local authority spending plans of this kind.

Correction

The reply to question S3W-5950 which was originally answered on 21 November 2007, has been corrected: see page 1785 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-07/wa1204.htm.

  The reply to question S3W-5381 which was originally answered on 29 October 2007, has been corrected: see page 1825 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-07/wa1206.htm.

  The reply to question S3W-5383 which was originally answered on 29 October 2007, has been corrected: see page 1825 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-07/wa1206.htm.